Many computer-based innovations rely upon a human-computer interface to effectively convey information to the user. Graphics programs on a personal computer, a spacecraft cockpit, dash instrumentation in a vehicle, a personal digital assistant, or any other computer and/or embedded computation machine typically employs the use of an interface. Because of the importance of having an effective human-computer interface, much focus has been centered around the design and implementation of them, especially to reduce the cognitive and memory load on the user.
As such, much effort has gone into ways to filter or reduce the amount of “information overload” on the user. Yet, there is another problem, generally referred to as “attention deficit,” that is not often solved by using the same tools that reduce information overload. Attention deficit refers to the idea that the human user does not have nearly enough attention to deal with all of the information presented in traditional manners. Therefore, the human-user may experience a reduction in awareness pertaining to significant or interesting events.
One particular industry where information must be rapidly received and assimilated by a user through an interface is electronic trading. In electronic trading, an exchange brings buyers and sellers, also referred to as traders, together for the electronic execution of trades. Traders remotely log onto the exchange through their trading stations to receive market data. The trading stations utilize specialized trading interfaces to display the market data and facilitate order entry. The trading interfaces are generally configured to update quickly to reflect near instant changes in the market.
An example of a trading interface, which provides an especially intuitive view of the market, is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,766,304 and 6,772,132 given both to Kemp et al. The entire content of each of the above-referenced patents is incorporated herein by reference. This particular trading interface displays market data in alignment with an axis of prices in a window on the screen of a trading station. The user can view the market's movement simply by watching the bid and ask indicators ascend or descend the axis.
A typical trading interface might present market information for one tradable object or many tradable objects, depending on the type of interface and its intended purpose. Users might also have more than one trading window on their screen. Some users even go so far as to have two or more computer screens for displaying numerous trading windows. As used herein, the term “tradable object” refers to anything that can be traded with a quantity and/or a price. It includes, but is not limited to, all types of traded events, goods and/or financial products, which can include, for example, stocks, options, bonds, futures, currency, and warrants, as well as funds, derivatives and collections of the foregoing, and all types of commodities, such as grains, energy, and metals. The tradable object may be “real,” such as products that are listed by an exchange for trading, or “synthetic,” such as a combination of real products that is created by the user. A tradable object could actually be a combination of other tradable objects, such as a class of tradable objects.
In addition to viewing market information through a trading interface, a user might set up his trading strategy through on-screen programming to view historical charts which can provide insight into the markets he is trading, to view important news which might be relevant to the markets they are trading, or to perform any other task thereby causing the user to look away from a given item or window on the screen. Additionally, the user might be subject to other distractions and interruptions, such as receiving an email or answering a telephone call.
Besides the distractions and interruptions, the human user can invariably focus on limited portions of a screen at any single time. This limited ability may result in missing important pieces of information that were presented at the same time, or near the same time, the user was focusing on something else. In some instances, where there is a great deal of information being displayed in a single window, the user might even miss something being presented in the same window on which he is currently focusing on.
As computer use becomes more widespread, especially in the area of electronic trading, the ability to assimilate large amounts of data becomes an increasing concern. It may be very difficult, next to impossible, for the user to be aware of everything that is potentially relevant to the user's activity without some assistance. As indicated earlier, much effort has already gone into designing an interface that guides and constrains human interactions to reduce the cognitive and memory load on the individual. While helping the user focus on one particular window of information may be desirable, this effort does not address the sort of problems incurred by users of such computer-based systems, especially in the electronic trading industry.